


Under the Surface

by LainCelebi



Category: Warframe
Genre: Character Study, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-04 18:56:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18610510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LainCelebi/pseuds/LainCelebi
Summary: A series of short oneshots exploring the tenno and certain parts of the lore in a darker view. The Tenno are far from what the system thinks they are, and these works try to explore that side of them.





	1. They used to call us devils

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As the oneshots center a lot on my own characters, I will be putting quick bios of them.
> 
> Kaz - A tenno, her main warframe is hydroid, she has scars on the right side of her face close to her eye. She has trouble with her vision on her right eye, and has trouble controling her anger.

A Nezha walked slowly in grineer galleon. Taking it's time. The ship almost looked empty with no grinner in sight so far, but it was obvious they were somewhere, noises of heavy armor walking around and guttural screams could be heard around the ship, crude attempts at language, the tenno thought. A glimpse of a common day on a grineer galleon, but that would change soon. The tenno mission there was extermination, soon not even one grinner would be alive in that ship.

 

Nezha operator however seemed distracted. As Nezha walked the hallways absent minded, Kaz had a sentence in mind that she couldn't stop thinking of “These are golems possessed by devil minds.” Kaz didn't know why this sentence kept playing in her head, she heard that for what had seem long ago. The way how Ballas had described the Warframes and the Tenno. This sentence triggered her memory of  all the times she heard the orokin referring to the tenno as devils, demons, inhuman creatures that should be feared.

 

Kaz could remember many tenno hating being called that, including herself. Hearing the Orokin calling them that with disgust loud and clear on their tone. None of the tenno asked for what happened to them, and yet they were demonized for it. 

 

Kaz then decided to finally start her mission, using her rage to focus, and soon the slaughter began. She didn't care if the grinner knew she was there, no one would be alive to tell the story. She was fast, Nezha would leave a trail of fire and bodies, the grinner never had a chance and soon they noticed. Instead of fighting they started running away. A terrible mistake, this only made her start killing them faster, not giving them any chance to run. She then hunted them down, one by one. Quick deaths, efficient kills. At each kill the remaining grinner got even more terrified. At some point someone turned on the alarms but to their despair, there was no one else to come.

 

Kaz could notice the terror on their faces, almost the same terror the orokin tried to hide under their disgust. Didn't take long for the whole ship to become completely silent, only the machines could be heard. Kaz stand there after she was done, taking in the silence, eyes closed. As she opened again she really saw the damage she did, this time not blinded by rage. Bodies mutilated, blood all over the floor and walls something that looked like the work of a devil… as Kaz walked towards extraction the sentence played once again in her head, devils… maybe there were some truth in their word after all, Kaz could see it. They used to call the tenno devils, Kaz might have truly become a devil by now, and she couldn't care less about it.


	2. Twisted Honor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick bios:
> 
> Soulen - One of the operatives helping the Tenno cause. Kaz rescued him during a mission but he ended up learning about who the tenno really are, since then he has become like a father to Kaz.

Tenno, honorable warriors, capable of great destruction, and yet children. This was how Soulen, an operative sympathetic to the tenno cause thought of them. Learning they were just kids was a big shock to him, and now learning more about them through Kaz was even more shocking. 

She would tell him about what some Warframes were capable of. Mind control, reanimating enemy bodies, impaling enemies… and so much more. These didn't seem like honorable actions to him. And yet seem completely normal for the tenno. 

Kaz couldn't understand his reaction the first time he guided her through a mission, he would gasp at some of her actions being it slowly drowning her enemies or ripping them apart with hydroid tentacles. At the end of the mission he had asked her if she really thought that was a honorable way to fight, to which she responded with a confused face and a simple yes. At this time soulen knew, something was wrong.

The more Kaz told him about the tenno ways, and how the orokin trained them, he felt sick. Kaz wouldn't tell him everything, some parts he knew she was not telling, and others she just didn't remember. But he didn't know how much influence the orokin had on these kids before this. They were molded not to be warriors but dispensable killing machines. 

But soulen never said that to Kaz, to her they were warriors, even with the orokin trying to twist them they were able to remain who they were. To soulen, these kids had their heart in the right place but they either didn't notice or didn't want to notice what they had become. 

Soulen could tell the orokin were not able to complete change these kids, deep down there was something the orokin couldn't understand and so couldn't change, but this didn't change the fact that these kids were changed, broken.

Soulen would smile at Kaz talking about her mission and how she was helping people. He would agree at her saying how she was not a child but a warrior. He didn't have the heart to say the truth she didn't want to see. He didn't know what happened in the first place to make the orokin use them, but he could see the outcome. And he knew he hated the orokin for what they have done.

They twisted these kids morals, made them believe the only at they had was to kill, feed them notions of honor that would fit the orokin in a way they could control the tenno, and probably tried more, tried to completely destroy these kids. 

Soulen knew he couldn't do anything to help them, this was too deep already, there was no way he could change her way of thinking now. But he would do his best to help, he would try to protect the part the orokin couldn't change, he would try his best to at least show her there are other ways, he doesn't expect her to follow them, but he would at least try showing a way out of the path it was chosen for her.


	3. What a mother does for her children

Since the lotus vanished a lot of things changed for Soulen. He met tenno and learned a lot about them, things he knows he was never supposed to learn. And yet Kaz would tell him, he was glad she would tell him things but he didn't understand why she trusted him so much, since he knew not all tenno would do the same.

As time passed they grew close, and she would tell him about the lotus. How she always guided them, how she betrayed the sentients to take care of the tenno, how she hid the moon to protect them. And how she was taken away from them, and how she almost tried to kill Kaz... It was painful for her to talk about that, the anger and disbelief in her voice was clear, but Kaz still cared for her.

After hearing how the lotus was a sentient, Soulen couldn't understand why the tenno still trusted her. To him this could the part of some bigger plans and the tenno were being naive to believe she cared for them. But the moment he suggested that the lotus could be using the tenno to Kaz, he regretted it. He was met by one of her anger outbursts, something that made him remember how dangerous these kids could be.

“Shut up! Just shut up! You don't understand anything! She is all we have now, she is the only one who understand us as Margulis did...she might have used us to do what she wanted but….we...we were something...to her. I don't expect you to understand...just don't talk about her like that.” 

Kaz anger died down after her initial explosion, replaced by sadness, she left quickly after that leaving soulen alone. In her anger her void powers manifested, soulen could see some marks on the floor where she stand. Luckily she didn't do any more damage than that. He let go of a breath he didn't even notice he was holding and sat down thinking on what he have done. He didn't know who Margulis was but it was obvious she and lotus were important for Kaz.

He still couldn't believe the lotus cared, but he wanted to understand why Kaz believed so much. He got to his terminal and started looking at the data he had from the lotus. this itself was a complicated task since all the data was encrypted and protected, but in the end he was able to hack tactical plans, missions, rewards given. These were the only data available but to him these would be sufficient to see something suspicious, something that might prove she was using the tenno and that she had other plans for them.

After hours looking he was confused. Her mission plans were made to keep a careful balance, keep the war going and using the tenno as a balance force. But why? Stretching this war would only cause more suffering to the whole system, he always believed the plan was to finish it but that didn’t seem to be the case, just what she was planning? He took a deep breath, and tried to analyze what was the plan behind it, but no matter how much he thought nothing made sense to him. Seemed like her only plan was to make the war last.

All Soulen could understand is that she tricked everyone, the whole system. He didn’t know how, but right now he was more focused on why. It had to be a reason, something he wasn’t being able to see, a reason to why Kaz would see the lotus almost as a mother…. a mother. Soulen stopped for a second, he didn’t want to believe this line of thought but he had to try. And he was shocked, he could finally understand. A masterplan crafted to make the war last as long as possible, to make the tenno be useful as long as possible. Those kids only know the war, they were warriors, what would warriors do if the system was at peace?

A game for the tenno, this was how the lotus saw this war. She was ready to sacrifice the whole system to let her children play…. Soulen started laughing, a maniacal laugh, this wasn’t funny to him, this was total madness. In a way all her plan had the tenno best interest in mind, she didn’t care about anything else. As he continue to laugh he wondered if he underestimated how smart those kids were. Kaz was right about everything, the tenno were important to lotus, the only thing that mattered to her. It was clear she didn’t plan to go away at any time, his laugh died as sudden as it began. 

The tenno could have so much power on their own, but their power over others was even greater, they were able to convince a sentient to betray their own race and manipulate a whole system without even noticing, it wasn’t their fault and Soulen knew, but at the same time couldn’t not blame them. For what was happening in this war, what happened to his family. He had information now that could change the war, that would change everything… and yet there was no way he could even think using it. He was completely under the influence of those little devils. He didn’t know the full picture of their suffering but he couldn’t bring himself to even try to make their life even harder, not after seeing Kaz like that. 

Soulen erased all traces of the conclusion he arrived, he made his decision, he would be in this for them too. He was betraying everything he ever believed in by doing that, and yet he thought it was worth. And now there was only one thing to do.

Kaz was in the personal quarters inside her ship still mad about what Soulen said trying her best to not cry as she sat on her couch holding her knees close to her. She didn’t expect him to understand and yet it still hurted, she was looking through the window when she received a message from Soulen, she was reluctant to even read the message, hesitant to learn what that could be, but in the end decided to open it. She wasn’t expecting this response from him and somehow confused her a bit and at the same time made her cry a bit. The message only read “You were right, I understand now and I am sorry”.


	4. Primal Rage

The alarms were on, corpus were running around aimlessly. The fear didn't let them think. Bloody footprints covered the hallways of what once was a very busy corpus research base. Bodies and blood were everywhere. An attack so quick and brutal could only mean one thing, Tenno, and yet seemed too brutal to be one...

The survivors were running barricading rooms, trying to find places to hide. Most had no idea what was happening, whatever was killing their companions and destroying their machines was fast and deadly. The corpus didn't make a sound, all of them were inside a small room, trembling but in silence, hoping whatever was happening would end soon. They didn't hear any screams anymore but they knew something was still there.

After what seemed a eternity of silence, they heard an inhuman scream, loud, piercing and full of rage. The corpus stopped moving they looked at each other with fear clear on each of their faces. And then silence again, it didn't last long tho. The sound of terrified screams and shooting took place, for just a moment. The silence was back again. 

They heard a door close by open, a loud noise. Screams and shooting started again, this time followed by the footsteps, fast, getting close. Someone was running for their life, then another sound something running fast, too fast, a loud hit on the door,a scream of pain and bloody claws coming from the other side of the door. As the claws got out of the holes,blood started running down the door, slowly bright blood red that was accumulated in a puddle by the door. Rapid breathing could be heard on the other side of the door, something big. Breathing in, out,in,out,in,out...then a loud thump, something falling to the ground, followed by a splash and the light coming through the holes.

The terror took over all of them most were still, not moving a muscle, but one dared to move. He quickly got up, opened a locker and got inside it. Making all the others look at him and then quickly turn to the door. Whatever was outside heard the commotion. Something blocked the holes, a low vibrating growl echoed outside the room. Loud breathing could be heard, almost trying to sniff them out. The light passed through the holes again and suddenly ripping sounds on the door, metal scratching noises loud, rhythmic, left, right,left,right,left, right… increasing speed, loud growls could be heard and then the scratches stopped. Only the growl remained, soft footsteps could be heard from one side to the other.

The corpus could only wait, trembling in silence. A snapping sound followed by metal falling to the floor, and then movement in the vents… going to their direction. All of them got up, looking at the ceiling trying to figure where it could be. One ran to the door panel trying to open it while the others pointed their weapons to the ceiling. When the movement got too close one opened fire, the others did the same unloading their weapons all over the ceiling. Making the silence return again. 

Some were still pressing the trigger, but no bullets came out, they were focusing on the ceiling, waiting to see if something was going to happen and it sure did. In a moment the metal grate fell and along with it a creature, a humanoid shape and yet beastly. Big claws and a tail, crouched on the floor like an animal ready to attack. Its head moved looking at each one of them, counting it's prey. And then something they were not expecting, a mouth opening, revealing teeth, sharp teeth. Letting out a roar while it pounced on one of them.

Like everything else it happened quickly, in a second the creature was on top of one of them with it's teeth ripping off a throat. Blood splattered all over the room, covering the remaining corpus. The creature jumped to another sinking its long and sharp claws on both sides of the corpus chest, dragging the claws to the middle of the guy’s chest,ending his life. The remaining corpus were divided in groups now, some were banging the door while one was still trying to open the door with no luck, getting wrong password errors which was impossible. He was the one who input the password, there was no way…..someone changed….the password. His hands were shaking, he had to find out the password, he needed to, HE HAD TO!

Three bodies were already on the floor, some were desperately trying to reload their weapons, while two tried to climb the vent while the monster was busy. Trying to shoot it was soon proved to be the worst idea, shooting seemed to have no effect, and only made the shooter the next one to be killed. As soon as one got up on the vent the monster pounced on them sinking its claws on the torso of one of them, pinning him to a wall and bringing the other one to the floor, on a puddle of blood. taking a claw out and in a quick motion ripping the body in pieces. Turning to the one on the floor and with a another quick motion of its claws separated the poor guy’s head from its body. 

One by one the ones that were banging on the door were killed leaving just the one hacking the door, as the monster was busy with its last prey, the doors opened and the corpus started running for its life, but he didn’t went far, three steps outside the door was all he was able to do. He screamed as he felt like a hook grabbed his back and he could feel his body being pulled back inside the room, he screamed and begged as he got closer and closer to the creature, in a flash he was being hold by the monster claws, at the same level as the beast head. The face had no distinguishable features other than the mouth full of teeth that growled at him. But he could feel intelligence in that beast, and heatraded. He finally understood that no one would get out alive, including him. He closed his eyes as the claws ripped his flesh.

Valkyr was still holding the last lifeless body with one arm, finally letting go of it, letting it slowly fall down to the floor that was now a big pool of blood and flesh. Her claws were still out breathing rapidly again, the same rhythm as Kaz. This was the second mission Kaz was doing using her new warframe Valkyr. Her first mission against infested proceed without any problem but as the first corpus appeared, Kaz was taken by a wave of anger and hate, she was not expecting that. She could feel Valkyr anger, she could almost feel what Valkyr had felt, what the corpus did to her. Kaz gritted her teeth, she despised the corpus before but now she felt something more. Valkyr deserved to have her revenge against them, and Kaz was ready to give her that.  
“I feel you Valkyr, they deserve this. We will do this together” Kaz could feel Valkyr being grateful and ready to unleash her rage on her old captors.

Valkyr was still inside that small room claws moving, wanting to rend even more flesh. There was still one more corpus, hiding inside the locker hoping the monster would just get out of the room. He couldn’t see anything inside the locker but he had heard enough to know what happened. He could hear footsteps moving towards the door, he breathed out slowly, relieved. That’s when the steps stopped and he heard a voice, that sounded like a girl, maybe a teenager, but her words made his blood run cold.

“Go back, there is one more.” The steps turned to his direction, and the voice came back again.

“The locker, the last one. This one is yours” Why? Why? Why this girl is guiding this monster to him? Why, the monster didn’t attack this girl? Why him? Why him? WHY HIM?.... why he had to die?

The door opened and he finally saw what the monster was, his eyes full of tears and shock the monster….the warframe he worked on, took parts, part of its skin off, to be used in project Zanuka. It looked different, but still familiar. He finally understood, he was going to die, there was no escape.

Kaz was finally back on the ship with Valkyr. Both were exhausted, anger was tiring but both were satisfied. As Valkyr went to be cleaned, Kaz went to her room, dropping on her bed, still thinking on what happened. She knew warframes were able to influence the tenno but she wasn’t expecting that, she didn’t mind how much blood was spilled, she was sure she had spilled way more in the past… but what bothered her a bit was...she couldn’t tell if all that rage was just Valkyr’s, she couldn’t tell if it was Valkyr who really wanted the slaughter or if it was her...


End file.
